US prison guard Jeremy Sivits was sentenced to the maximum term of one year in jail after pleading guilty to charges of abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib at a court martial in Baghdad.
A military policeman, the 24-year-old was given a bad conduct discharge and reduced to the lowest rank of private, which he will keep until he is discharged from the army after completing his jail sentence.
Sivits is the first US soldier charged in connection with the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
He had pleaded guilty on all four counts, with a reservation related to the taking of a photograph of naked prisoners. He was charged with two counts of maltreating detainees, one of conspiracy to maltreat and one of dereliction of duty.
Sivits had opted to be tried by military judge Colonel James Pohl alone, without a jury.
